The Tempered Radical

Stuffing Kids with Content

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Why Test Scores are ALMOST Useless to Me

If you've been following the conversation on the Radical recently (see here and here), you'll know that we've been collectively wrestling with the place that the magic bubbles (read: standardized test scores) should have in assessing student understandings. 

One question that I haven't had a chance to answer yet was posed by regular reader K. Borden.  She wrote:

If that rising sixth grader were entering your class, would you want only her former teachers’ observations or would you want those test results as well? Which would serve you best in providing her an opportunity to be an enthusiastic, confident and competent learner?

Good question, K, and one that has had me thinking over the past few weeks as our school's end of grade test scores have come back from Scantron Central. 

Here's my response:  When talking about my initial attempts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the students entering my classroom, test scores are almost completely useless to me.  I have little confidence in them as a measure of an individual child's abilities and---given the choice---would take observations by both parents and teachers in every circumstance.

That's not a very tempered response, is it?! 

But it's a response built from the understanding that test scores for individual children can change dramatically from one administration to the next with no apparent explanation.  I first learned this lesson while watching the testing results of a boy----let's call him Jamison----that I tutored several years ago.

Assessment's Either/Or Conundrum. . .

I'm enjoying the give and take of the conversation that has developed in the comment section of my recent blog post on the Danish system of assessing students because it is forcing me to think!  As always, diversity of opinion provides the kind of external challenge necessary for new learning. 

While listening, I've noticed two distinct viewpoints developing.  The first argues that an overemphasis on standardized testing as a form of assessment leaves parents and teachers with a superficial understanding of what it is that a student knows and can do. 

As Simon argues:

The point of education has to be to teach kids to do something that they couldn't do before. That's what learning is. Frankly, it's uninteresting how well a bunch of 14 year-olds can cough up the periodic table or list off the members of the Triple Entente in 1914. That kind of information is easily available when you need it and listing it is proof of memorization, not learning.

What is interesting is what you can do with such information. Analysis, critical thinking, using technical terminology - these are skills, and skills that are very hard to measure in a multiple-choice quiz. They are also fairly easy to judge in a conversation. If it is unclear whether the pupil is parroting or not, just ask another question.

Assessing Learning the Danish Way. . .

As most Radical readers know, I’ve spent the past eight days touring Denmark as a part of a program run by the Center for International Understanding—one of North Carolina’s most important professional development organizations for teachers. 

While I completely enjoyed the opportunities that I had to learn more about the European Union and Denmark’s social welfare system—topics that are a part of the curriculum that I teach—my favorite experience of the entire week was observing two different students go through the only official examination that generations of Danish children have ever taken, which comes at the end of 10th grade. 

  by  ccarlstead 

Kind of geeky, huh?  I mean who spends the better part of 8 days in a 1,000-year old land full of history, cultural geography and really good beer observing tenth grade final exams?!

Creativity is Dead, Ken. . .

Last February, I stumbled across a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson titled Do Schools Kill Creativity that left me completely energized.  In it, Robinson lays out a case for why creativity should be reintroduced to our classrooms that echoed themes being shared by writers like Daniel Pink, who argue that the most effective workers in tomorrow's world will be those who can innovate and find connections between and across disparate fields. 

Knowing that my own practice did little to encourage creativity, I was challenged----and I spent the better part of the last 8 months trying to find ways to allow my students to spend more time creating and innovating. 

My efforts have been a complete failure, though. 

Creativity is dead, Ken. 

  by  Michel Filion 

As I see it, here are some of the biggest barriers to creativity in the classroom:

States define MASSIVE curricula for our kids:  Regular Radical readers know how much I hate the required curricula that I'm expected to teach. 

Like the $12 burrito you order at the local Taquerita when you're feeling randy, state curricula in almost every subject leave teachers and students feeling bloated and gassy.  While we might enjoy the first few bites of our studies, by the end of the year, school becomes nothing more than a pleasure-less mechanical chew.

Creativity and innovation are inherently messy activities that take time to develop in students.  With the pressure of packing away thousands of concepts in less than 10 months, time is something I just don't have.  Want to see creativity creep its way back into the classroom?  Then cut our curricula in half.  Maybe then we'll have time to take a breath and think a bit.

Reflections on Readicide. . .

Sitting here the morning after our four-day conversation with Kelly Gallagher on how ineffective reading practices are harming the kids graduating from our schools, I'm trying to sort out exactly what it is that I've learned. 

Like any good opportunity for growth, I suspect that I'll be mentally wrestling with this issue for weeks, but here are some initial thoughts that I know I'm going to hold on to:

I'm not alone:  Coming into this conversation, I was pretty embarrassed about my own instructional decisions.  You see, I have changed what it is that I do in my classroom in an attempt to produce results on standardized tests---and I feel horrible about it.  My decision was based on the pressure that I seem to face each year when it's discovered that my students have the lowest scores on the hallway, but testing pressure is just plain difficult to ignore in today's accountability climate.

From the sounds of it, dozens of other teachers are struggling with testing pressure at any given time.  While that should probably leave me saddened or angry, at least I know that I'm not alone.  Readicide is real----and it requires a collective response because it's an issue affecting schools in every corner of our country. 

That leaves me confident that practitioners and parents working together might just be able to build enough political will to drive change.

Readicide is a community---not a classroom---issue:  If you go back and look at the comments that I leave throughout our conversation with Kelly, I ask the same question a dozen times:  If the solution to Readicide depends on individual teachers taking individual actions, then can we really count on seeing scalable change across schools and communities?  After all, when decisions are left up to individual teachers, we're virtually guaranteeing that some students will be left behind while others will benefit depending on which room they're assigned to in August.

For me, that means any attempts that we make to improve reading instruction have to be systematic.  Learning teams working together need to examine the kinds of opportunities that their students have to interact with text.  Media specialists have to design ways to create book floods for every classroom.  Principals need to decide just how much professional freedom and flexibility that they want to afford the instructional experts in their buildings, and parents need to make sure that school efforts extend into the community. 

Ending Readicide is one of those issues that depends on everyone---not just classroom teachers.

Leadership--as always--remains the forgotten key:  In an overlooked comment near the end of our conversation, a participant named FlitterFly mentions how important the support and modeling of her principal has been in driving change in her building.  That comment has been lodged in my brain for the past 24 hours because I realize exactly how true it is. 

Here's what I mean:  School leaders have been sending mixed messages about reading instruction for the past decade.  "We're all reading teachers," they'll say while cutting student access to electives and slashing the time that students spend in social studies and science.  "Sustained Silent Reading is important," they'll say while sitting behind their desks answering email during their building's collective reading hour.  "We care about more than test scores," they'll say while panicking when numbers are published by the press.

Until building principals, district superintendents and local policymakers buy in to the idea that we're killing reading, nothing is ever going to change.  And that's frightening.

Now it's your turn to reflect: If you downloaded Readicide or stopped by our conversation this week, what lessons are you walking away with?  What ideas resonated with you?  What do you still need to wrestle with?

Most importantly, what do you plan to do TODAY to improve reading instruction in your building or in your community?  We can't just walk away from this conversation and return to business as usual, can we?

On a side note:  While commenting is now closed, know that our conversation will be available for viewing until the end of time!  You can share the link----found here----with anyone at any time who you think needs to learn a bit more about what effective reading instruction should look like. 

(Image credit:  Wrestling Redux by Available Light, licensed Creative Commons: Attribution)

Final Day: Readicide Conversation

It's hard to believe, but TODAY is the last day for participants to jump in to our conversation (see here) on reading instruction with Kelly Gallagher---author of Readicide: How schools are killing reading.  After three days of brilliance from dozens of commenters, I feel good about what we've learned together.

If you haven't had a chance to stop by yet, you might be interested in the following strands of conversation:

On the first slide, Attila Uregen wonders whether we can really blame Readicide completely on schools when he writes:  "Reading , as form of entertainment, enjoyment and the assimilation of knowledge is being killed by technology innovations as well as home life to a greater extennt...Don't you think?"

On the third slide, Patty McClune argues that surrounding kids with text should not be left to classroom teachers alone.  School and public libraries are perfect places for beginning the kinds of lifelong book floods that Kelly describes in Readicide.  Patty writes:  "But I also think it’s critical for students to become familiar and comfortable with the culture of libraries so they can take ownership of their book selection in and out of school. Sort of the same idea as if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish he can feed himself for life."

On the eighth slide, FlitterFly and I start to wrestle with an interesting question:  How will building principals react to the kinds of instructional practices that Kelly recommends in Readicide?  After all, without their support, we're in trouble!

On the last slide, Kelly and Alice Mercer are working through an interesting concept together:  Are students capable of reading entire novels?  Is it possible that some of the reading troubles we see in schools might just be a reading endurance issue instead of a reading comprehension issue.

So stop by Voicethread today, huh? 

Find a way to contribute to this conversation before it closes to comments tomorrow morning!  While you'll always be able to access the dialogue and share the link with colleagues, today is your last chance to lend your thoughts to the collective knowledge we're building together. 

Day 3: Readicide Conversation

You know something:  Y'all are my favorite people on the planet!  Every time that I drop by our conversation with Kelly Gallagher (see here), I have my thinking challenged in a meaningful way.  In fact, I'd argue that our conversation has been my favorite professional learning opportunity in months. 

Very cool.

Here's some highlights from yesterday's conversation:

On the first slide, Terry Smith---a new participant to the conversation---talks about a benchmark reading program that his district requires of teachers and students.  Apparently, teachers sit with each child in their classrooms for 20-30 minutes reading short passages and assessing student ability.  "All this teaches my students," argues Terry, "is that short passages are all that we value."

On the third slide, BP Librarian challenges Kelly:  "The hole that I see in Readicide," she says, "Is that you don't mention the role that school librarians can play in promoting reading."  BP's thoughts are echoed later in the conversation where participants ask Kelly to explain what the ideal partnership between classroom teachers and school librarians should look like. 

On the fourth slide, the Brain challenges Susan Jones----who teaches a college readiness reading class to struggling freshmen:  "I wonder if college expectations are changing the way that high school teachers are teaching reading----and if so, how?"

And on the last slide, Alice Mercer wonders whether or not there can really be one approach to selecting text for students, noting that Kelly advocates for the return of novel studies to classrooms while many classroom teachers have been pressured into using shorter selections of text in the classroom. 

If you haven't stopped by our conversation yet, you should!  Here's the link.  I guarantee that you'll learn something.

If you have stopped by already, here's your day three challenge:  Rather than posting something new to the conversation today, go in and find a comment made by another participant to respond to.  It could be something that made you think.  It could be something you completely disagree with.  It could be something that you want to know more about.

Make today a day of interaction by interacting with an existing participant. 

After all, that's what good collaborative dialogue looks like in action, right?

Day 2: Readicide Conversation

Yesterday saw Radical Nation join together with Kelly Gallagher for the beginning of a four-day focused conversation on the state of reading instruction in our classrooms (see here)----and the conversation has been nothing short of amazing.

Some quick highlights:

Bill Gaskins asked whether or not reading instruction has appropriately changed with the times, adjusting to the reality that online reading is becoming an increasingly important part of our children's lives.  What impact should this have on the way we teach reading, he wonders.

A brilliant participant who I've decided to call Sister Lionfish (Rat-fro-con-lionfish) has started a strand on the importance of "giving students permission to fall in love with nonfiction reading again."  She's a science teacher who is working hard to teach reading in her classroom.

Another participant named Chapman noticed a trend in her classroom:  Students have grown comfortable with some of the mind-numbing instructional practices in our reading classrooms.  We're currently trying to figure out why that happens. 

On our final slide, Clix has asked an incredibly important question for every reading teacher to consider:  How do we know whether we are overteaching or underteaching the novels that we tackle in our classrooms.

A pointer for participants:  Many users have asked whether it is possible for one person to leave more than one comment on each slide.  The answer is yes---and I hope you will!  Ongoing dialogue between participants around one concept is what makes a conversation healthy.

When you do, though, you won't see a new icon added around our focusing quote.  In order to keep a slide from getting cluttered with icons, whenever a participant adds a second comment to a slide, Voicethread adds the comment to the conversation without adding a new icon. 

Other participants will know that you've added a second comment by looking at the timeline found beneath each slide, where they will see a new yellow comment tab.  They will also see a yellow box surrounding your icon.

Here's to hoping that you'll take the time to stop by our conversation before it ends on Thursday!  Not only will you learn a ton....we'll learn a ton from you!

Conversation on Readicide Begins Today!

Here it is, Radical Nation: The first day in our four-day conversation on the state of reading instruction with high school teacher and noted author Kelly Gallagher, who's new book Readicide:  How schools are killing reading and what you can do about it is being released by Stenhouse this Spring. 

Interested in joining the conversation? 

Then click this link:  Enter Readicide Conversation

You might also be interested in this set of suggestions on how to make digital conversations work for you and this set of directions about how to sign up for a Voicethread account.  Don't forget that you can still download the complete text of Readicide by visiting this link.

If you struggle at all with your own Voicethread login, you can use this generic login that I created this morning:

Username: readicide@wcpss.net

Password: readicide

You'll find a small box in the bottom left hand corner of the presentation that will let you change to any of a range of generic identity icons.  The only hitch with using this generic login is that only one user is allowed to login under an identity at a time!  If you struggle to get in using the generic login, consider waiting for 20 minutes and then coming back. 

 

Something to know about navigating Voicethread conversations:

While working in a Voicethread conversation, participants can choose to hit the "Play" button at the bottom of any particular slide and watch the conversation around that slide from beginning to end.  That's probably the best strategy the first time you stop by our Readicide conversation because you'll get to hear my opening questions, Kelly's initial responses, and the initial thinking of other participants.

As you revisit pages, however----something you should do once or twice over the course of the week to see how conversations are developing----you can click on new icons surrounding the quotes that you are interested in to hear new comments that have been added.  You can also click on individual comments in the "Timeline" bar that appears at the bottom of each slide.

By doing so, you won't have to listen to every comment every time that you stop by our conversation!

Let's knock this out of the park, huh? 

Take some time in the next four days to add what you know, to allow your thinking to be challenged and to challenge the thinking of others.  Be committed to walking away from this conversation with new evidence and information that you can use to influence the parents, teachers and principals of your buildings. 

Reading instruction has to change----and the first step in change is building knowledge! 

Voicethread can help us to do that together.